Maldives gears up for first democratic election

updated 7:58 p.m. ET Oct. 7, 2008

MALE, Maldives - To supporters, President Mamoun Abdul Gayoom is a hero who turned a poor nation of fishermen into a tourist paradise and the economic success story of South Asia.

Detractors accuse him of ruling the Maldives as a dictator, violently suppressing dissent and amassing wealth for his friends and family.

On Wednesday, Asia's longest-serving ruler will face his first democratic election, challenged by a crowded field of opponents who say it is time for a change.

"We've had a dictatorship for the last 30 years," said Mohamed Nasheed, head of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party. "The people of this country deserve better."

Whoever wins will inherit a stunningly beautiful country of 1,190 coral islands, about 200 of them inhabited and dozens more developed into tourist resorts, many owned by current and former Cabinet ministers.

The elected president will also confront a growing heroin problem, increasing fundamentalism in the Sunni Muslim nation and the threat of rising sea levels caused by global warming.

Candidates promise reform
Gayoom's two main challengers are Nasheed, a charismatic former political prisoner who led the pro-democracy movement, and former Attorney-General Hassan Saeed, a respected reformer who resigned last year complaining Gayoom was frustrating the transition to democracy.

Eranga Jayawardena / AP Maldives' main opposition presidential candidate Mohammed Nasheed speaks during an election campaign in Male, Maldives, on Monday.

A former foreign minister, an Islamic party candidate and the head of a small opposition party also are running. If no one wins an outright majority, the top two vote-winners will meet in a runoff.

There is little difference between the main candidates' platforms, which promise better health care and stepped up development for poorer islands far from the capital city of Male, said Saeed.

"From this stage, it is about the personality, who is more credible, more trustworthy," he said.

He said he would pull people from all parties into his administration and, unlike Gayoom, would ban his relatives from holding key government jobs.

"We counted close to 44 of his family members in senior posts," Saeed said.

Gayoom, who took power in 1978, touted his record of bringing development to this nation of 350,000 and appealed for a seventh five-year term.

"We are not through yet. We have achieved part of the program, but there is still a lot to achieve," said Gayoom, who has never before faced an opponent in an election.

Just ahead of the vote, Gayoom was forced to make a nationally televised address to dispute an auditor general's report accusing his government of improperly accounting for millions of dollars.

"Obviously this report has a political nature," he said.

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